ANGLICAN
CHURCH

Gosford Anglican
Church's Father Rod Bower and his signs of the times (The Age, Melbourne) July 8 - The leadership of Australia’s mainstream churches may sometimes seem
slightly silent on boat people, but a Gosford Anglican reverend is at the
forefront of a grassroots movement impatient with waiting for religious
hierarchies to get their acts together.

Also:
Pope Francis begs
forgiveness in meeting with abuse victims (The Australian) July 8 - POPE Francis has begged forgiveness in his first meeting with
Catholics sexually abused by members of the clergy and went further than any of
his predecessors by vowing to hold bishops accountable for their handling of
paedophile priests.

Anglican
Church

Tutu backs right to die
law reform (The West Australian)
July 13 - Retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu has become the latest high-profile
figure to come out in favour of a change in the law on the right to die, days
before a British House of Lords debate on the issue.

Vatican calls for global
ceasefire during World Cup final (The
Age, Melbourne) July 12 - Vatican City: The Vatican on Friday called for a truce in wars around
the globe during Sunday's World Cup final, taking to social media with the
hashtag #pauseforpeace as a conflict in the Gaza Strip escalates and killings
continue in Ukraine.

Erdogan vows to rewrite
constitution for 'new Turkey' (The
West Australian) July 12 - Istanbul (AFP) - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said
he planned to rewrite the Turkish constitution if elected president, as he
outlined his vision for a booming and powerful "new Turkey" in the
next decade.

Judaism

Reforming rabbi and
spiritual father (The Age,
Melbourne) July 10 - Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi was considered the spiritual father of
the Jewish Renewal movement - an influential camp of religious pioneers who
reintroduced to synagogue services ancient Judaic traditions of mysticism and
meditation, gender equality and ecstatic prayer.

Imam of Mosul mosque
executed before 'caliph' gave sermon(Sydney Morning Herald) July 8 - Geneva: The Islamic State's execution of 13 Sunni Muslim clerics last
month in Mosul was a moveto silence
moderate voices among Iraq's Sunnis, and deserves greater attention, the top
United Nations expert on religious freedom said.

Savagery up-ends
Israelis’ conviction (The
Australian) July 12 - WHEN three Jewish youths forced petrol down the throat of a
16-year-old Arab boy before setting him alight, they could not have imagined
the political earthquake they were igniting.

Underage fighters drawn
into Iraq sectarian war (The West
Australian) July 12 - BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The video on his phone shows the boy firing a
heavy machine gun mounted on a tripod through a hole in a crumbling building,
his slender body shaking from the kickback.

Other

Daily Mail apologises to
George Clooney (Daily Telegraph,
Sydney) July 10 - BRITAIN'S Daily Mail newspaper has apologised to George Clooney for
alleging his fiancee's mother opposed their marriage on religious grounds, a
story Clooney called both wrong and irresponsible.

Terrorist Khaled
Sharrouf went to jihad on welfare (The
Australian) July 12 - ONE of Australia’s most-wanted terrorists and a suspected war
criminal, Khaled Sharrouf continued to receive a taxpayer-funded disability
pension months after arriving on the battlefields of Syria.

Also:
Musa Cerantonio refuses
to answer questions in Philippines(Sydney Morning Herald) July 12 - Wearing a white hooded robe and carrying a can of Coke, bearded
Australian religious extremist Musa Cerantonio was ushered through crowded
Manila airport after refusing to answer questions posed by Philippine police.

Also:
Musa Cerantonio: The
tale of the try-hard jihadist (The
Age, Melbourne) July 12 - It is difficult to believe that one of Australia’s most wanted
religious extremists, Musa Cerantonio, grew up in a big, Catholic Italian
family of six in a suburb in Melbourne’s west.

POLITICS

George Brandis's
creeping spy powers (The Saturday
Paper, Australia) July 5 - The first hint the government would push for the expanded spying
powers came at the end of last month, in an exclusive story in The Daily
Telegraph.

Also:
Brandis adds Islamic
State to list of terror groups (The
Australian) July 12 - THE federal government has officially listed the Islamic State group
as a terrorist organisation, in what it says is a message to Australians
intending to join or fund Islamic militants in Iraq or Syria.

World Cup 2014: where
God's on our side (The Age,
Melbourne) July 12 – (Opinion: Tim Boyle) Brazil has the world’s largest population of
Catholics, so it is fitting that during this World Cup the country has hosted a
more fallible papacy than Rome’s, that of poor Neymar, and the still levitating
Lionel Messi.

Raelians and other UFO
cults stand firm on their 'out-there' ideas (The Age, Melbourne) July 10 – Given the evident ideological agreement between Tony Abbott and his
Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper, it is safe to predict Canberra won’t be
rolling out the red carpet any time soon for a delegation from beyond the solar
system.